Travel makes me feel at home

It might seem quite easy to travel by plane with musical instruments but unfortunately, the opposite is true. Each airline has its own policy concerning transfer of our instruments. Violin is mostly to be allowed to take as your cabin baggage, however, some companies require to pay a special fee for it and with the severest airlines, one may have to buy an extra seat. That is how it works with a cello every time, though some of the airline companies refuse to transfer cellos at all. Mr CELLO - as it is stated on the ticket - should be considered as a full-fledged passenger but the cabin crew turns down its desire to drink a coffee or eat a sandwich. To save some money on the flight tickets, all three of us share one baggage which makes the bag drop off and weight check a real nail-biter. It all seemed like everything was going smoothly this time until the flight of our cellist was cancelled which, of course, let us with some logistic difficulties. Fortunately, to manage this situation caused only a slightly bigger amount of stress than the usual.

The competition came up with a very special way of taking care of its competitors. Each ensemble had its own guide who was available for the whole time of the stay and whose origin was the same as the contestants’. Therefore we got a chance to meet a Czech family from Brno that had lived in Trondheim for few years. We spent  some time with them and their small children by sightseeing the city and discussing on how is the musicians’ life in Norway.

Although the competition have not brought us to the winners’ podium, it had provided us with precious experiences and motivation for the upcoming work. Trip to Norway was not the only challenge of this new season. We had two trips to Italy ahead of us - one competition, at which we were given 1st Prize, and several concerts which were offered to us consequently to our previous successes in competitions. We had already travelled to Italy a lot of times so a twelve-hour car journey was nothing that would scare me off as I used to be the only driver in our trio until recently. Thanks to all those journeys I have become a suited person for recommending plenty of exquisite audio books thanks to which I never had a problem with losing concentration or falling asleep while driving. Since we have quite recently become members of an Italian project Le Dimore del Quartetto, we could have stayed in a beautiful villa Le Pozzarelle during our residence in Italy. The owners of this villa accommodate musicians for free in exchange for playing at a concert that they throw in their house. This particular project links a great amount of music enthusiasts throughout Europe, who organize these types of concerts and help performers to reduce accommodation expenses.

After quite a demanding start of this season, everything has fallen back on to a steadier flow. Now, sitting in my room in Dresden, I cannot wait to experience other plentiful moments that always and with no doubt occur in a life of a musician and of which I will tell you again next time…

Elba Isle

Florence

Trondheim 1

Trondheim 2

Trondheim 3